Category Archives for Writing
Skill with a Quill: The Power of Writing in “Hamilton”
There are a couple of songs in Hamilton that I would rather skip. (Yes, Lin Manuel-Miranda devotees. Have at me.) Frankly, “It’s Quiet Uptown” is too painful for me to hear. As a father of two, I wouldn’t dare to imagine the pain of that loss.
And the other song? “Hurricane” just sounds so… meh. It’s an ominous, somber tune that heralds the coming of scandal in Hamilton’s life and career. By design, it’s one of the sadder melodies in a play packed with infinitely more memorable tunes. Whenever I listen to “Hurricane,” I try to find some redeeming quality that justifies two minutes of my attention.
Now, I may have just found it.
You see, the lyrics to “Hurricane” establish one of the main themes of Hamilton. Of course, any aficionado of the play will tell you that legacy, death, nation-building, and love are the musical’s backbone. The theme underscored in “Hurricane,” though, is a little closer to home—a humbler concept compared to those sublime motifs.
It’s writing. Yes, you heard that right. Hamilton—with all its duels, cabinet meetings, and sexual innuendos—is all about writing.
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Writers’ Dilemma: What Writers Need To Do To Stay Productive
Writers are magicians. They are artists. They are an embodiment of Apollo on earth. But above all else, writers are human beings who have mortal issues like a lack of productivity and burnout.
Professional writers who spend hours curating stories, blogs, and other content may seem to have a normal job, but what goes on behind the scenes is an unspoken tale.
Writing is a taxing job that involves creative ideation, research, and attention to detail. While many people become writers due to sheer passion, it also pays our bills!
Whether it is the turbulence of working from home or a general lack of energy, every writer needs a little boost to keep their fingers flying over the keyboard.
Here is a list of eight simple and realistic ways to help you keep your productivity up and your word count high every day.
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7 Solid Ideas To Make Your Writing More Conversational
Have you ever stopped reading something because it was boring?
If you want to make sure your blog posts, emails, and other online content are highly engaging from start to finish, there is a unique writing style you need to know.
This style can help you connect with your readers on a friendlier, more personal, and informal level. You’ll be able to quickly grab their attention, and keep them reading until they get to the end no matter the length of your content.
So what is this style of writing?
It’s called conversational writing, and involves writing as if you are talking or having a nice chat with a friend.
According to irreverent marketer and copywriter Henneke Duistermaat, even though conversational writing feels as if you’re having a cozy chat in a café it doesn’t mean writing exactly like you talk. Instead, it’s a stronger, more concise, and better-structured style of writing.
The good news is that conversational writing can:
- Make your readers feel recognized, valued and appreciated.
- Help you develop a stronger relationship with your readers.
- Make your writing easier to read and understand.
- Get more people reading and sharing your content.
- Help you build and maintain readers’ trust.
- Boost your chances of converting readers to customers.
But it doesn’t end there.
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Preplanning: Planning Out What You Will Do Ahead of Time to Avoid “Frame Switching”
As writers, we constantly face multiple challenges of various kinds. From writer’s block to looming deadlines, and from time-management issues to procrastination, a writer’s life is full of diverging paths requiring our attention.
However, those diverging paths are a problem in and of themselves.
If you’re someone that writes on a regular basis, you might have experienced frame switching, aka context switching. Frame switching is what happens when you quickly go from one task to another and lose momentum for the task that you were originally doing. As you can guess, losing momentum isn’t great news for productivity or the quality of your writing.
In this post I will show you how to avoid frame switching using a productivity technique called preplanning. Preplanning will help you to make sure that you finish your articles within your desired time frames, and improve the overall quality of your writing.
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